September 2015

I continued to regain my strength from having Dengue.  It will take a while to get completely over it, and I may have residual effects for a long time, but it was great to see progress every day. 

Classes chugged along as usual.  It’s so much fun to see the different women coming through the mission house each week.  Some can’t come every week, so it’s especially nice to catch up with them.

I spent a lot of time in September doing things to prepare for being in Rogers AR in October for the missions conference at my home church.  Admin stuff is not may most favorite thing to do on the mission field, so each accomplishment meant a lot to me.  Being on a limited budget, special planning has to go into printing costs and other parts of preparing for conferences.  God provided through some wonderful people. 

Sofi was a little sick during the month, as was Victoria.  Veronica hooked us up with a wonderful peds doctor, who makes house calls.  He is great and is now more of a friend than just a doctor.  He had ordered some blood and urine tests on Victoria, just to rule out some stuff, and to see where she is at healthwise, since it was his first time to see her.  He came by the next day to read the results and explain everything to us.  He listened to V’s lungs and said that the headcold/flu had not reached them.  She had spiked a high fever the week before, which had Sofi and I up every 4 hours giving her Tylenol and keeping cold rags on her head.  Her fever broke at 4am and by the time the dr first saw her, she was feeling much better.  We were glad for the thorough exam he made on her, even though she was better already.  He also talked to Sofi about nutrition and suggested the formula that his baby is on.  He gave Sofi an injection ordered by another dr (she was scared to let me do it).  He also talked to her at length about her health.  He came by the third day just to listen to V’s lungs again. 

Victoria is growing so fast.  We hate to see her change, but it is so exciting to see the next stage in her growth.  I just love that little munchkin so much.  I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in her life.  I know that He has great plans for her.  I am humbled and blessed to be a part of raising her.  And it is a blessing to be a part of the team that God has made out of Sofi and I.  It’s all for His glory!

Finances are a big part of ministry and one part that I least like having to deal with.  I wish I could have everything lined out, in order and no worries.  But that is not reality.  I do love sharing about the ministry and getting people involved, and with that, comes financial support.  But asking for money and being concerned with the bookkeeping is not much fun.  Living on support has definite challenges associated with it.  One is that I have no control over how much money comes in each month.  It all depends on how God is leading people and if they are responding to His prompting.  I also do not have control over when the money gets put into my account.  It has been difficult in the past to get the previous month’s donations deposited into my account so that I could pay our bills on time.  When I was so sick, I just didn’t have it in me to make those weekly pursuits asking when the deposits would be made.  That ended up with my health insurance lapsing due to the funds not being in the account in a timely manner before the auto-draft was made by the insurance company.  It took phone calls to the church and the insurance company to finally get that all rectified.  It also caused some other problems.  But I think it got the attention of the appropriate people to get the deposits made in a more timely manner. 

Living on support from partners/donors is a very humbling experience.  It makes me trust God on a very personal level.  It’s not just my living circumstances that are affected by the income, but also the teachers and part-time employees of the ministry.  The classes themselves depend on the income being received in a timely manner.  When we are broke, it’s not fun, but it’s another way of living the message of trusting in God to provide.  When we have had to sell clothing and other items to buy food for the week, it was noticed by the people we minister to, and they, in turn, could see our faith at work.  We could still praise God for everything, even the tough times, and that spoke volumes to the people watching us.  As hard as times can be, we are grateful for the opportunities to share Jesus in very real ways.

The end of September was spent finishing up things for the conference, making appointments with doctors, accountants, etc., for my time in AR, and making lots of stuff to bring to the US for sale.  Kervin was working hard on finishing the website, which we have been working on for a year.  Enia made a laptop bag for me to use in AR.  It is beautiful and shows her great workmanship so that I can take orders for her.  Also, 4 of us worked hard on some embroidered magnets to give to our supporters as thank you gifts.  Each of us had a small part in putting them together.  It was fun to do it this way.

God continues to reveal Himself in big and small ways to us each and every day.  He is faithful to guide and carry us through this walk with Him.  We are so thankful that He never gives up on us.  What a privilege to serve Him.